With the current events, Lucario couldn't be happier with his decision to explore the world with Hariel as his new "master". Though from what he had gleaned from the woman, she wouldn't appreciate the honorific so he called her by her preferred name instead.

He had seen so many new things, taking in the modern world. He was amazed by the changes of technology and the new pokémon. He had seen many that he could not recognize. Not to mention the delicious food that Hariel fed him. His fur had never felt so silky and soft! Especially when she insisted on brushing him every day. Luxray and Absol and both gotten the same treatment and their fur was just as healthy as his.

But as of the moment, Lucario took in a calm breath as he took in the forest around them.

Lucario blinked when he felt Hariel's hand on his shoulder and he looked up at her, only to see her hold her forehead, as if she was recovering from a moment of dizziness.

"Sorry Lucario, I'm a bit dizzy at the moment," Hariel said, smiling wryly as she unknowingly confirmed his thoughts.

"Are you feeling alright, Hariel?" Lucario asked with worry.

Absol looked up at her with confusion as she swayed again.

"I'm just feeling a little under the weather today. It'll pass," Hariel said reassuringly and they continued on.

Lucario and Absol shared a look before walking closer to the dark haired woman. Her face was unnaturally flushed and her breathing was a bit ragged.

Approximately 15 minutes later, Hariel tripped over her own feet, despite usually being quite graceful in her movements.

"Hariel!" Lucario surged forward and caught the psychic before she could hit the ground.

Hariel looked dazed as she looked at Lucario, as if she was wondering how she even was in his arms. She then closed her eyes in a dead faint.

"Hariel! Are you alright?!" Lucario asked urgently and lifted a paw to her forehead and near gasped when he got a feel for her temperature. "She's got a fever."

'We need to get her to a safe location then. Hariel is vulnerable in this state,' Absol said.

Lucario easily lifted the petite woman into his arms and closed his eyes, using Aura to find a suitable spot to make camp for the night.

"There's one over there," Lucario said and rushed to the clearing he had found with Absol hot on his heels.

After arriving in the safe haven, Absol gathered some leaves to make a bed for her to lie down on until they appropriately set up camp.

Lucario then proceeded to release all of Hariel's pokémon to help out.

'What's wrong with Hariel?' Charmeleon asked worriedly.

"She's ill. We need to set up camp and contact Steven so we know what to do," Lucario said calmly.

'I'll go find her some berries! Sitrus and Oran berries are great for restoring energy!' Kirlia said, earning a nod from Lucario.

"I'll set up the tent," Lucario said, "And I'll contact Steven as well."

'I'll make some ice. That should cool her down a bit!' Milotic said, having just mastered Ice Beam a few days before.

'I'll get ready a fire too, just in case,' Charmeleon said and went to go and collect some twigs.

'I'll ward off any nearby wild pokémon,' Luxray said and ran off.

'I'll stay here and watch her while you contact Steven,' Absol said and laid down next to Hariel, who looked worse than before.

Lucario nodded and took the Xtransceiver off Hariel's wrist. He had seen her use it enough times before to know how to use it himself.

After fiddling around with a few buttons and using Psychic to push them, a ringing noise sounded through the small clearing.

It was a few more tense seconds before Steven had answered.

"Hello Hariel—huh? Lucario?" Steven asked, confused.

"Hariel has fallen ill. We need instructions on how to cure her," Lucario said.

"Can you tell me her symptoms? That will help me get a better image on what to do," Steven replied, looking serious.

"She's having some trouble breathing, her temperature is much higher than normal, and she suffers from dizziness as well," Lucario answered, looking at Hariel critically.

"Alright. I'll be there in a couple hours. For now, get a cloth and soak that in icy water and put it on her forehead. Keep her temperature regulated. You want to keep her warm, but you don't want to overheat her," Steven explained calmly. "Next, keep her hydrated. Sitrus Berry Juice and Oran Berry Juice works great to help her keep her energy levels up so she can fight off the fever. If you don't have that, water will do just fine. To help elevate her breathing, create some steam. That will help clear out her airway. Now then, can you look into her bag for me? Try to find the red capsule. It contains her medical supplies. Take out everything and show them to me."

Lucario reached into Hariel's bag and pressed every button he saw and released all the contents of the capsule.

He laid them out and let Steven see them.

There was a first aid kit, multiple bottles of Full Restores, Full Heals, Antidotes, Burn Heals, Super/Hyper/Max Potions; and another kit full of different medicine bottles.

"Can I see those medicine bottles please?" Steven asked and Lucario used Psychic to hold up each bottle for Steven to see. The man said nothing until he saw a white pill bottle with a red label. "Hold the one with the red label closer please? Okay…let's see here…yes! That's the one. Give Hariel one pill every four hours. Now then, can you activate the tracking module on the Xtransceiver? It'll be the green button on the left side."

Lucario nodded and pressed the button.

"All right. I'll arrive in a few hours!" with that, Steven hung up.

Lucario then started to instruct everyone on what to do after he used Psychic set up the largest tent Hariel had.

After settling her in, Milotic made the icy water to soak the cloth in, Kirlia had come back with some wild Oran berries and Sitrus berries, and Luxray came back from fighting off some nearby Poochyena and Mightyena.

With the help of the Sitrus and Oran berry juice that Charmeleon helped Kirlia squeeze, they managed to get some fever medication into her.

Once the cloth was wrung out, Absol carefully set the cloth onto Hariel's forehead. Over her body, Milotic and Charmeleon carefully created some steam.

It was a tense next few hours while they waited for Steven and cared for Hariel.

Lucario and Kirlia also used Heal Pulse on Hariel to make her more comfortable. While it didn't heal humans like it did pokémon, Heal Pulse had a soothing effect and it certainly did help maintain Hariel's comfort.

"I'm here," Steven said, coming into the tent at last.

He took in the sight of all of Hariel's pokémon surrounding her, though Milotic barely managed to squeeze in and had to keep her tail outside of the tent so they wouldn't crown Hariel too much.

Lucario watched as Steven then knelt beside Hariel's ill form, pulling the hair out of her face.

"Don't worry. This just seems like your typical run-of-the-mill fever. She'll recover within a day or two," Steven said, giving some relief to the pokémon. "Now, we need to get her to eat. A smoothie of Oran Berries should do nicely so I'll make that. I've also brought over some of Hariel's favourite miso soup with tofu. It'll help give her the nutrients she needs to get better. So Charmeleon, Kirlia, can you heat it up for me?"

'Of course!' 'Yes!' Charmeleon and Kirlia said and dashed off with the container of soup.

"Now then, I'm sure that Hariel keeps a blender in her capsule," Steven said, searching through the bag and found the one labeled for Camping and Cooking supplies. He found the blender, but also found that the electrical charger was low on power. "Luxray, can you come outside with me to charge this up? I'm sure you've done it many times."

Luxray nodded and followed Steven out of the tent.

Lucario followed as well, observing what everyone was doing.

Kirlia held up a pot with the soup over the campfire that Charmeleon had made earlier with Psychic and had a spoon in a constant stirring motion as to not burn the tofu within the soup.

A little ways away, Luxray charged up the charger as Steven loaded the blender with Oran Berries and a couple slices of Sitrus berries. He also added in a couple of ice chunks to make the smoothie smoother.

A loud whirring noise sounded out before it came to a stop. Lucario watched as Steven put the mixture into a cup with a straw before going back into the tent.

Once the soup was hot enough, Kirlia and Charmeleon also retreated back into the tent as well.

After getting some food and more medicine into Hariel and letting her rest, Steven took the time to instruct the pokémon on what to do if a situation like this ever happened again.

Humans were just as prone as getting sick as pokémon. When times were tough, pokémon looked to their trainer for guidance and leadership. But there are times when the trainer are the ones that needs help, so it's up to the pokémon to care for their trainer until they are able to take back their leadership role.

They made the right choice of contacting him when they didn't know what to do, but there would be times where he wouldn't be readily available.

Steven taught them on what medicine to use for fevers and the different foods they could use to bring Hariel's energy back up like the Oran and Sitrus berries. He taught them to help Hariel keep comfortable by wiping the sweat off her face, neck, and arms if she was too hot, and how to bundle her up if she was too cold.

If she had a running nose, they should give her tissues to help clean her nose as well as to let her breath in steam to clear up her sinuses. It helped with labored breathing as well.

Hydration was also a key component. Water and Juice worked best, but one should avoid things like milk because dairy products were harder to digest.

If she refused to drink, then try creating a Popsicle out of juice or have her suck on some ice chips. They would help keep her hydrated without overwhelming her with an abundance of liquids.

Soft foods were also best. So soups like miso soup or congee were best and easily digestible. A vegetable soup would be great too if they made sure to boil the veggies until they were soft and easier to eat. When Hariel got better, Lucario and Kirlia would ask her to teach them how to make such things as they would have the easiest time doing it.

Finely cut fruit and fruit smoothies were also great alternatives. Hariel had enjoyed the smoothie greatly.

For the first time, Hariel was not there to feed them on schedule, so the pokémon had to feed themselves.

Releasing the contents of the food capsule, other the containers full of fruit, vegetables, spices, and other cooking ingredients Hariel used, the pokémon saw large plastic tub containers of various colours. Within each container were the food pellets they ate every day, although whose was who's was anyone's guess. And they couldn't read the labels on the containers either. They had only learned to recognize key symbols like Pokémon Centers and PokéMarts, but never actual words.

When Lucario spotted Charmeleon sneaking at the basket of PokéPuffs, he slapped the offending claw away.

Charmeleon pouted at him but backed off nonetheless.

After much trial and error, they had figured out which coloured containers held whose pellets.

With the help of Kirlia's and Lucario's Psychic, they filled each bowl appropriately.

In a different container, they saw pokéblock of various colours in sections, allowing them to add a few of their favourite ones to their food dish.

For dessert, Lucario made sure that they only had one PokéPuff maximum, knowing how much of a glutton everyone except Absol could be about the treat.

Not long after everyone finished assembling their dinner, Steven stepped out of the tent.

"Great, it seems like everyone has got a good handle on what to do," he said, looking proud before giving a look at Charmeleon. "Now Charmeleon, I know that Hariel doesn't feed you that much at dinner."

Everyone looked to see Charmeleon adding more pellets and pokéblock to her food bowl.

"Overeating isn't healthy," Steven said and took the bowl from the Fire Type, returning some of the pokéblock and pellets back to their respective containers much to Charmeleon's chagrin. "Hariel keeps you all on a strict diet for a reason. Overeating can make you fat, but undereating is also detrimental to your health. She always carefully measures how much you need based on your weight, type, and how much exercise you've had that day."

All of Hariel's pokémon shared a look. They didn't know that Hariel had put that much thought into their dietary needs. It was true that they all got different things inside their pellets having watched her make them often, not to mention Hariel did feed them a couple Poffins or a PokéPuff after an intense training session or a grueling battle as a reward.

"There you go, that's should be good," Steven said and gave the bowl back to Charmeleon with the appropriate amount of food.

Having observed Hariel many times, Lucario figured that Steven had probably picked up on approximately how much each of them ate.

After dinner where Steven joined them with a sandwich he had packed earlier, the Champion helped the pokémon set up their sleeping mats to settle down for the night as well as any blankets they might need.

Steven had opted to sleep inside the tent with Hariel while everyone else would sleep outside. It was a beautiful night without a single cloud in the sky.

The next morning, Hariel was feeling a lot better. Her pokémon were thrilled with the progress her condition made despite the fact that she, as ordered by Steven, would not be allowed to travel for at least another day.

But at least with Hariel conscious, she was able to instruct Kirlia and Lucario on how much everyone should be eating and how to prepare a simple congee dish.

During breakfast, Lucario turned to see a female Eevee peeking at their group from behind a tree.

From where he was sitting, Lucario could hear the rumbles her stomach.

"Are you hungry?" Lucario asked, already knowing the answer.

Eevee gave a hesitant nod.

"I will ask Hariel for some food. Don't worry, she's very kind," Lucario said.

Eevee looked a bit braver and stepped close to Lucario, catching the attention of everyone in the clearing.

"My, an Eevee," Steven said with a smile. "What's this little one doing out here?"

"She's hungry," Lucario answered. "Hariel, may she have some food?"

Hariel was bundled up in a blanket with a bowl of hot congee in her hands. Steven was beside her, eating the same thing for breakfast.

"Of course," Hariel said with a smile and looked at Steven, who gave her a nod.

The Champion put his bowl on the ground and stood up. He gathered up some of the Sitrus berries and Oran berries they had found earlier for Hariel's consumption in a cloth and walked over to Eevee, who looked at the man nervously but didn't back away thanks to Lucario's reassuring look.

Steven set the berries in down in front of Eevee and backed off. Eevee happily dug into the meal.

"Eevee, the Evolution Pokémon. Eevee is rarely seen, and can adapt to severe habitats by evolving, changing its capabilities and form."

"Wow, they have so many different evolution variations!" Hariel said, looking at Eevee with amazement after checking out the different forms of Eeveelutions.

All of them were gorgeous in their own way.

"Yes. They're very popular Pokémon," Steven said.

After Eevee finished her berries, she trotted over to Hariel with a curious look.

"Hello there, Eevee," Hariel said with a gentle smile.

"Eevee!" Eevee cheerfully replied back.

"I'm glad you're not hungry anymore. Would you like a PokéPuff for dessert?" Hariel asked, picking up her basket of premade PokéPuffs and holding it out.

The sweet smell and the colourfulness of the treats intrigued the pokémon.

"You can pick any one you like," Hariel offered.

With her tail, Eevee pointed at the pink one.

Hariel picked the chosen PokéPuff up and set it in front of Eevee, who took a bite before her eyes sparkled with joy.

"I think you have another fan of your cooking," Steven smiled and kissed the side of Hariel's head.

Hariel smiled in joy.

Eevee then looked around at all the other pokémon in the clearing before setting its eyes on Absol. The Normal type widened her eyes at the sight of such a handsome pokémon. His white fur shined in the sun without a visible odd tuft or tangle in sight, his claws were sharp and shiny, and his overall confident and calm aura enchanted her.

Lucario blinked. He did not expect Eevee to gain an infatuation with Absol.

It sort of reminded him of the other day when a trainer's Flaaffy gained an infatuation on him. Of course, he was not interested and a pokémon battle had ensued…with him winning of course.

Lucario said nothing, but could sense the Eevee following them the next day after Steven had left. The Evolution pokémon had stayed with them for the duration of Hariel's resting period.

Eevee had spent nearly the entire time in Hariel's lap while she watched Absol and Milotic spar with each other as Absol had great offense, while Milotic had excellent defense. The two worked brilliantly together.

Absol didn't say anything, but Lucario was sure that the other noticed as well.

Then Absol turned his head slightly and closed his eyes before tugging on the end of Hariel's shirt.

"Absol sol sol," Absol said. 'Rain is coming soon.'

The pokémon gestured his head towards the clear blue sky.

"I see. Rain, hm?" Hariel mused. "From the looks of it, it won't be coming for another couple hours. We should make it to the town by then. According to the Hoenn guide and Steven, there's a great pharmacy and farmer's market up ahead. It'll be a good time to stock up on some supplies. That Oran Berry smoothie has really grown on me."

Absol nodded and they continued walking.

"Wow, this pharmacy has everything we need and then some!" Hariel said, looking at all the different medications and vitamins available. She then picked up a bottle with a thunder bolt symbol on the label. "Helps regulate an electric type pokémon's voltage? Great! This will be perfect for Luxray. I've read that sometimes electric type pokémon like Luxray can get overcharged with electricity and get sick from it. It hasn't happened yet but it doesn't hurt to be prepared."

With that, she placed the bottle into her basket. Lucario was already holding another basket full of vitamins, nutrient supplements, and potions.

After racking up quite an impressive bill at the cash register, Hariel happily left the pharmacy with her purchases with even Absol holding a bag up by his teeth.

Once they deposited everything into the First Aid capsule, Hariel then went to the farmers market.

There was fresh fruit, herbs, and vegetables on sale along with Moo Moo Milk, berries of all kinds, and even freshly made ice cream and yogurt.

Hariel eyed the plump fruits with amazement and stocked up. After stocking up on more spices and herbs or cooking, she headed to the ice cream stall.

"What would you like, young lady?" the elderly man asked kindly.

"I would like a vanilla cone with sprinkles, a chocolate cone, and another scoop of chocolate in a cup please," Hariel ordered cheerfully.

The man tipped his hat to her and immediately set to work. It was only a minute later that she walked away to a nearby park.

Lucario was enjoying his cone and Hariel set Absol's cup of ice cream on the ground so he could enjoy it as well.

"Are you Hariel Evans? The famous girlfriend of the Steven Stone?" a rather snooty sounding voice asked.

Hariel looked up to see a girl in a rather stylish get up walk over to her. If she was going by physical appearance, she'd say that the girl was around 16 years old. She had hazelnut brown hair that reached her shoulders in perfect little ringlets, blue eyes, fair skin, and was roughly a few inches taller than she was.

All in all, she was a pretty girl. The type to be popular in school.

"Yes, that's me," Hariel confirmed.

"Of course. You're rather recognizable thanks to your Absol and Lucario…and that hairclip," the girl huffed.

Hariel looked confusedly at the girl, wondering what she wanted.

"My name is Cassandra. And I challenge you to a battle!"

"…Right now?" Hariel asked, still eating her ice cream.

"Yes right now!" Cassandra growled.

"I'll meet you over at the battlefield," Hariel said, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb at the pokémon battle ground not too far away, "in a few minutes. You can use that time to get ready."

Thankfully they didn't actually have to find a clearing. Just about every town and city had areas were pokémon battles could take place without being disruptive to the general populace.

"Grr…fine!" Cassandra snapped and made her way over.

"What's her problem?" Hariel huffed.